The Mask of The Dreamer
by lazarus wolf
Summary: LARA/SAM - Events following 2013 reboot. Centers around Lara/Sam and Lara helping Sam deal with what happened, and unintentionaly starting a relationship. But someone from the past wants to finish what was started, and they brought a familiar 'old friend' - from Yamatai. I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT! RICHARD CROFT REPLACING HENRY DOH!
1. Chapter 1

She couldn't sleep. Her dreams were a source of preternatural terror to her; filled with the leering eyes and grabbing hands of demented men that took her away for no better reason than 'she' wanted to be free, and liked her skin. She would see the eyes, men's eyes, in the dark corners of clubs, broad daylight of coffee shops, in the street, in the stores - everywhere. She tried to keep herself calm till she got home, but once there, she still didn't feel safe. The neighbor, the middle-aged blond man with the mustache, the kind face, and friendly tone of voice reminded her of Whitman. Her independence, and self-esteem, both were wore down and undermined as she failed trying to fight the nightmares and paranoia with her once vaunted sheer grit... it was to no avail. She went home to recover after having been alone for only three months after Yamatai.

Home was no better, everywhere her culture, her family history... Himiko. Her parents were kind, understanding, but powerless against her frayed confidence.

They had her on drugs to give a sense of calm, but they wore off, and she dreaded taking them because of that fact. She would spend her time on them in steadily growing trepidation of the inevitable, horrible, moment they would fail. She got worse.

Nightmares turned into a sea of swirling shadows and hidden monsters circling the wooden fortification of her medications and her steadily fraying psyche.

Her mother sat with her at night and stroked her daughter's sweat saturated, thinning black hair, crying in the face of the torrent of unrelenting tremors and twitching of her once free, confident, and independent child, now a prisoner to dead men and the shadows of her own families past...then she heard it. In the depths of her night terror, Sam breathed a soft breath of calm and safety... 'her' name.

THIRTY THREE HOURS LATER

Sam was awash in her hell, her body drenched in sweat as she fought to sleep for the sake of her own sanity.

The bedroom door opened, the tall, strong, statuesque figure strode silently to her bed, pulled back the sheet and quietly climbed in behind her.

Sam fought, pushing back, "No," she sighed nervously in her sleep, " no, please no, I want to go home... I want to..."

"Sam," the soft, calm, familiar British voice sighed into her ear as the slender, strong arm slowly wrapped around her waist, and held her gently, breathing slowly till Sam began to breathe in concert with her. "It's ok," Lara sighed as she stroked her friends hair away from her face, "I have you."

In her dream, Samantha, once cornered by the beasts of her memory, now stood fearless as a familiar, brave, and beautiful figure strode from behind her into the fray. SHE sent the shadows fleeing from her till the light of the sun was burst free from their hold on her eyes, and shone down on her once more, illuminating the obscured day-to-day objects which were now seen as what they were, and not the frightening misshapen shadows out to grab and rob her of her very soul, her life. There was no threat SHE could not save her from, and in her sleeping state, smiled and sighed peacefully in her saviors arms.


	2. Stolen Moment

Sam slept. For the first night in over four months, she slept though the night without drugs or night terrors waking her. Her body had relaxed to the point that she had not been awoken, even when she had turned and curled into Lara like a kitten; her head safely burrowed into the warm, soft, comforting embrace of her friends arms.

It wasn't until she scraped her cheek against one of Lara's buttons of her halter top, that she realized she wasn't alone in her bed. She gasped, and reflexively reared back out of shock, then stared at her bed-mate in gape jawed wonder: Lara... her savior, her friend, her... but was it really her?

Sam reached out to Lara's cheek, her fingers trembled, as if terrified she was a dream; the most truly cruel of nightmares: her salvation, her safety... a lie.

She was real. Now, when she needed her most to pull her out of the darkness, the one person who could. She didn't know how her mother had done it ,"We sent for a specialist from England," mom was never one for subtly. Sam had just toned it out - ha... very funny mom.

Sam sighed as her fingers caressed the familiar beauty as if touching a rare, and fragile piece of art that she feared would dissolve or crack if she pressed too hard. She didn't want to wake her yet; she just wanted to be here with her in this moment of another glorious rescue of her by her wonderful friend and the rediscovery of her beautiful face. Lara had returned to her.

She slid closer, her thumb played over Lara's full bottom lip. She kissed her with a feather's softness as her tears rolled slowly from her grateful eyes which had yet to blink from the moment she awoke and saw her. She briefly felt the soft flesh of Lara's lip between her own, and savoured the sensation of this longed for moment of unexpressed gratitude and yes, love, as her heart raced within her.

She once more rested her head against Lara's breasts, feeling for the first time the comfort of their soft fullness and warmth against her cheek... she sighed contentedly as she felt Lara's slow, steady breath, heard the rhythm of her heart beat, and let these two become one with her own, till she once more drifted off into peaceful slumber.

Lara opened her eyes as soon as she was certain Sam was asleep once more; gently kissed her sleeping head, then wrapped her arms around Sam's warm, soft body and licked her own lips as the sensation of Sam's lips upon them lingered... She smiled and bowed her head once more and nuzzled her friend against her. She was happy to be here with her, to once more carry her friend back from Mathias's grip. She would do anything to save her from the maniacs lingering madness, no matter how long, and no matter what she had to do to do it. She had to... she was, after all, her Sam.


	3. Trump

It's hard to believe this paradise had been Sam's hell before she came, but Lara had changed it for her; and now they both almost giggled as the noon day sun shone down on them as the pair walked the private beach at the ocean side of Sam's family compound in Honolulu Hawaii, hand in hand. It was becoming paradise to Lara as well, only soured by Sam's stubbornly lingering negativity; the shadows were holding on tight; and Lara had her own demon to wrestle, her failure to trust Sam enough to tell her she was bisexual earlier and not give up on their friendship. She feared in Sam's present state her paranoia could cause her to question Lara's pure motives and send her away at this important point in her recovery if she learned of it now. She was unquestionably attracted to her, but Lara loved her Sam just the way she was, and if she never got passed being just bff's (a choice she wanted Sam to decide for herself from a healthier and far more emotionally stable place) she could live with it.

It was the third day of her time with her and Lara smiled at Sam as she laughed louder with every wave that lapped at her bare feet. she was recovering remarkably: her skin glowed with health and happiness; the majority of her psychotropic drugs had left her system; and she was sleeping through the nights with Lara beside her, waking up only to steal more kisses from her, which Lara continued to find enduringly sweet as the lovely Brit feigned sleep, before snuggling into her to pass the next eight hours in her arms. Lara had chosen to make the experience as restful for Sam as possible and wore a soft lace top to bed so as not to wake her like the first night.

Sam stared at Lara with an almost sorrowful expression.

"What is it?," she asked.

"I was just thinking... I was thinking I might go gay."

It was blunt, direct and caught Lara off guard, but she managed to keep her cool for her friends sake, "I'm afraid you have to be born to it, it's as natural as your eye color."

"I know," Sam sighed, "It's just that if I was gay, I'd be stoked now. I'd be sleeping every night with one of the hottest girls walking whose also an unbelievable bad ass; and I wouldn't care about men, or what happened there as a drag on my future happiness and expectation of men. You know that was an assumption about you? The fact you never went for any of the cute guys who hit on you at the 'Belles'?"

"I figured as much," Lara sighed, "It wasn't true... I just didn't think any of them were really worth it." This was an outright lie, she had been in a hopefully discrete relationship with a hyper sensitive control freak of a beauty who ultimately cheated on her: a blond-haired, upper Manhattanite living abroad in Paris... named Amanda.

"Yeah," Sam snorted, "NONE of them are."

"I beg to differ," Lara whispered, almost to herself, as her eyes welled with tears, she hated lying to her, but it wasn't like Sam to be so negative. She had to help her see the guys as she used to.

"Come on," Sam's shadows issued their first challenge, "I remember every guy looking at you in that pub like a piece of well cured beef. Staring at your breasts, your legs, right at your crotch!"

"They were drunk, tired, lonely, irrelevant. I was the one parading myself in front of them for tips. You think I thought I got that job for my intellect? I went in there knowing what they saw me as. They treated me with respect when I interacted with them, they tipped very well, and kept their hands to themselves. I paid for my doctorate with that job." Lara played her cards carefuly in this high stakes game for Sam's health and well being.

The shadows ante up, and pushed forth their principal argument for Sam's mistrust - betrayal. "I saw countless married men hide their wedding rings when you walked up to their tables, heard them lie about their wives. Not to mention Whitman! They all use us. They all betray Lara. They all want the younger woman with the big breasts, narrow waists, great ass and pretty faces, and they don't give a shit about anything but getting in their pants. They are all the same!"

"So is every cynic," Lara lashed out.

Sam stopped in her tracks as Lara turned the full fury of her hidden shame of hiding her true self on her.

"Do you want to know why I never dated any guys? I was already in love... right up until I was nineteen, I had the ideal man in my heart all picked out. He was brave, kind, gentle, honorable," she choked on the last word. This was a secret she had kept, the unrequitable love she had always knew would never be, the man she held up as her trump card to all these arguments.

Sam made to touch her.

Lara backed away, and hurled another lie, this one more of a 'profound', almost insultingly theatricaly so, exageration to make a dramatic point, at her trusting friend, tearing herself apart as she did ,"LISTEN... please. Roth. I was in love with Conrad Roth. I went into his cabin at the age of nineteen in just a robe, and dropped it to the floor. I offered him my body, my heart... and my hand. Do you know what that man who is the same as any other man did?"

Sam cried along with her as she went on.

"He didn't miss a beat, or averted his eyes from mine as he pulled my robe over my naked body and kissed my forehead and whispered, 'if I didn't love you as much as I do, I wouldn't hesitate to take you up on this honor.'."

"Lara I...," Sam stammered.

"So, there, a man who I had wanted to touch my breasts, and he only did... when he pounded life back into my body before dying saving my life. So go on and say how he was a rare one; go on and deride me as a liar and a betrayer of Reyes; call me as they did my father, as I did, a day dreamer. I fell in love in that moment in that cabin, and I haven't stopped being in love with HIM. Not Roth any longer, but the man he was... and if he existed in Roth, he has to exist elsewhere, and unlike the other 'realists' among our gender and our sexual persuasion I will not stop searching for him... and I won't let you either," she marched up to Sam who stood motionless in open wonder at her fearless candor.

"I never suspected, You were in love with him? Oh Lara I'm so sorry."

"It was a long time ago, he WAS a rare one... but he did exist, see what I mean?" She smiled and took her hand; she had to make her believe the faerie tale, she had to get her to trust men again... even as it broke her heart, and made her feel loathsome to have lied at all to get her there.

Sam just stared at the hand that held hers so warmly.

"Is this how it has to be then? Do I have to take you by the hand and pull you into dark caves, bars, through parks, and along rivers to find the decent men if just to prove they exist? So be it, come on, let's go find knights in shinning... well, hopefully, somewhat clean clothes."

Sam smirked.

"I mean it," Lara sighed softly to her, "I will go anywhere to help you find your bliss, your happiness, your true love."

Sam followed her as a child a parent; her absolute faith in Lara making it possible to do so. She had bared her soul to her to prove a valid and relevant truth... we see what we want to, not what is truly there. She just had one problem with Lara's assertion of bothering to look for someone like Roth... Sam had them already - her.


	4. Lara Croft, Personal Jesus

The next three weeks they spent together were in a word, astonishing, as Lara led Sam all over the island's coast, and into the villages and cities Sam's attitude, confidence, emotional stability, and independent nature returned like a wildfire caught by the hurricane winds that were to her Lara's physical presence till all the overgrowth and deadwood of her emotional traumas were incinerated in the blaze of her renewed passion for life. They explored the caves, reefs, the tourist sites, tramped through the dense jungles, and even had more than a few nights out by the end, with Sam hitting on everything with a goatee and a tribal tatoo; and at night, lay in each others arms as sleep took them deeper and deeper into their unique union: the beautiful adventurous Brit, and the remarkably regenerating woman who was Samantha Nishimora.

Sam was steadily becoming curious of Lara's 'confession' of unrequited love on the beach, and one night, after a day on the beach, as they lay in their bathing suits on a massive family hammock Sam turned to her, and called her on it, "Was it true? The story of you and Roth? Not to question ya sweety, it just seemed too... fake."

Lara sighed out slow, and relented, "It was over a failed emotionally controlling relationship, one you never knew about. I was depressed, drunk, he was trying to cheer me up, so he got drunk as well. I always had a crush on him, An 'idol' thing - the rogue. Anyway he and I got 'pissed', you know, shit-faced drunk, and I got all stupid, then amorous for no better reason than I wanted to feel pretty to someone I was into... and even drunk, Conrad Roth was a true friend, and gentleman. I never even got the robe open. He flattered me with his 'I love you too much...' statement, though he slurred most of it, and he staggered me back to my cabin, opened the door, dropped a mop bucket by my bunk, and almost threw up standing up. It was sweet, and it proved my point even better than my 'romantic' retelling."

"So you weren't in love with him?" Sam asked, a little disappointed.

"Of course I was, I just knew he was too good a man to do anything with me... I was even more in love with him after."

Sam smiled and stroked her fingertips over Lara's flat, naked abdomen.

Lara watched her friends slender, delicate, dancing fingers, entranced.

"You have such a beautiful body," Sam sighed softly, then caressed the faded cauterised wound, "Here," she sighed, "let Dr Sam give this little scratch her 'special treatment'."

Lara gazed, unmoving as Sam licked her lips and softly touched them to the scar, her mouth lingered for a moment, then lay her head on her friends belly, and looked at Lara.

"That'll be two thousand dollars please."

Lara laughed happily, but couldn't help feel more than a little aroused; she was glad Sam had her sense of humor back but she was surprised by the almost sexual attention she was giving her.

Sam kissed her navel, "Sorry," she sighed, "yacht payments." Her hand fanned down over Lara's hip, her mouth moved lower.

Lara suddenly took hold of Sam's hand and slid out from beneath her, "Let's go for a swim! Nice, cold water, cool off my... feet."

Sam scowled, "Really? I was just getting comfortable."

"so was I," Lara responded nervously, "Devil makes work for idle lips and all that."

"Did I make you uncomfortable?" Sam asked, suddenly nervous.

Lara took her hands and squeezed them firmly but gently, and gazed sadly into her eyes, "No," she sighed softly, "just the opposite."

Sam smiled joyfully and danced a jig.

"Wait," Lara insisted, "I never ment for this to happen... Sam, it's not possible, you can't just turn gay. I fucked up, I made you..."

Sam stepped to her and caressed her cheek, "I'm not gay sweety, I just love that you love my kissing your bod. Strange thing is I never felt like this, even about you; then It just started, just after Yamatai. Now I think I might like feeling this way. You are remarkable girl, you are my strength, my hope, my... joy. I'll admit I'm confused by it, but I'm also elated just being here with you. Truth is I haven't felt this awesome, or been this excited since graduation."

Lara watched in rapt wonder as Sam splashed in the surf playfully, then stopped, and turned to her.

"It was a girl, wasn't it?"

"WHAT?" Lara gasped.

"The break up? the one you were so bummed about? It was with a girl - right? Amanda?"

Lara gasped, and once more, relented, "Oh hell, yes... I'm bi-sexual. You knew?"

Sam stepped to her through the water like some temptress out of a Bond film, and wrapped her arms around Lara's neck, and smiled playfully, "I didn't put it together till you said emotionally controlling relationship. This bitch kept calling my cell. At first I thought it was a wrong number till now."

Lara shook her head, "That bitch."

Sam smiled at her friend, "She might not want to try that shit on you now. Anyway, apparently she must have our residential info from some ass at the registrar, and she kept telling me, "You stay off my girls... you know... or I'll scratch your eyes out - for starters!" This Amanda slut is insane."

Lara just stared in wonder, "And you never said a word?"

"Nope, I found it kinda hot to tell you the truth, you and some hot, angry psycho chick? I mean...'Roll Camera!'"

Lara sighed softly as Sam brushed their noses together, then lightly touched her lips to its tip.

"I love you, Lara Croft; for all you've done for me, and for everyone on the Endurance you fought to save. I have no idea what it is I'm feeling now, cautious to call it love... I never had a crush on a chick before..."

"Angelina," Lara interjected.

"Don't we all? I mean it's wonderful. Don't get me wrong, like I said, I don't want this from any other woman, and I still want to get with guys... thanks to you. But I want to hold you to, kiss your amazing mouth, touch your amazing bod, I also want to make you smile... as well as lots of other things. I want to wake to see you like I did that first night you arrived here, I can't stop..." she suddenly kissed her softly, and gasped as Lara finally kissed her back, "THAT feels REAL good," she sighed breathlessly, "NOW I get the' kissing a girl' thing."

"We kissed before," Lara said softly.

"Maybe it's how I feel now, or, hmmm...," Sam sighed playfully, "I know, let's try again, you know... to compare," they kissed again, this time their tongues danced around each other in a glorious game of tag. Sam stared smoldering at Lara, then shook her head, and smiled, "Next time my mouth is heading in the right direction... don't stop me ok? It may take me a while to get up the nerve to try that again. I'm not exactly prone to wanting to go down there..."

"So don't," Lara laughed, "Sam you don't have to do anything..."

Sam closed her mouth over Lara's once more, their tongues now caressing, and tickling one another, "Mmmm, sorry, you had something on your mouth - mine. and don't tell me what I don't have to do. It just encourages me," she winked.

Lara blushed, "Are you teasing me Sam?"

"No sweety," she sighed, "I'm new to the maybe being in love thing; and I'm even newer to the being attracted to a girl. And no, I'm not getting a subscription to Playboy, but I'd love a home delivery of the "Tomb Raider Daily.""

"The what?"

"Well, 'tomb raider' if you think about it 'Archeologist, Dr. Lara Croft' isn't quiet you is it? I mean ask all those dead psycho's from hell on Yamatai. NOPE "TOMB RAIDER!""

Lara giggled, "Ok, 'tomb raider' ha. I like it ."

"Or 'Tomb Braider', cause really sweety, this hair needs unity, come on, let's braid it... Let's tame the Cracken."

The two wandered inside to the house as the tiki torches burned through the night like the lanterns of Yamatai. Lara had rescued her friend from the darkness of that place and had now rescued her mind and life from its lingering memories. The truth she had finally shared was not the all destroying nightmare she had at first feared it would be, and she now found herself on a new course in her relationship with Sam. But the shadows of the past, now long dead for Sam, were not so for Lara, and one very determined one would not so easily be dispelled - without first exacting a price.


	5. Her

The braid came down almost to the small of her back. It was a work of art, looking like two snakes that merge into one, and at the end terminate in what could best be described as a scorpions tail - a look suitable to the one who wore it, Sam's idea. It made running, climbing and swimming easier for Lara, and tended to whip against her back as she did these things, like a task master.

Almost four months had passed since Lara's arrival, and Sam was keeping up remarkably well with her training regimen, especially considering she had no instruction from Roth or anyone, simply a heart-felt wish to keep up with Lara.

Lara was impressed with her friend and her remarkably rapid ability to use weapons; though Sam never got used to the thought of killing, (for that Lara was grateful) and had instead developed considerable stealth skills. More than once Sam completely evaded Lara's best attempts to find her during a simulation of an attempted abduction; during which Sam all but literally vanished before her eyes into a thicket of trees and brush, astonishing her. Lara was soon confident Sam would be safe in any environment from being taken by surprise. The nightmares had done something good for her friend, they made her sense of danger a natural part of her other senses - just like Lara's.

Sam still didn't want to be parted from her, for other reasons. Sam was growing used to letting herself enjoy Lara's body,and was having an easier time letting both her hands and imagination wander over the ample, and enticing curves, growing more and more pleasantly excited, and heated, with each caress.

Lara, for her part, was more than willing to let Sam set the pace of her own growing attraction, and still encouraged by Sam's continued interest in the opposite sex - it indicated that it was Lara she was falling for and not any other woman... a sign that it was not a complete break from her earlier natural inclinations to an opposite perception of self, indicative of a mental dissociative disorder. Had Sam been Lesbian, and suddenly was attracted to just men, the same evaluation would also be indicated - someone breaking with their true nature.

At night they lay intertwined in one another's arms, touching one another with such loving tenderness and genuine affection Lara almost cried. When it came time to sleep, Sam didn't bother with the pillows, instead she simply lay her cheek on Lara's breasts, her arms wrapped around her friends waist, and let Lara's heartbeat and slow, gentle breathing lull her to sleep. Lara deeply enjoyed the sensation of Sam laying on her body, taking comfort in Sam's habit, knowing it helped her sleep soundly. She stifled her moans and sighs of pleasure as Sam nuzzled against her so as not to prompt Sam into doing something she may not be wholly ready to do simply to appease her. Still, the more Sam innocently explored her body as she slept, the more Lara had to fight the impulse to let her body react to it. She wanted Sam to share her pleasure with her - consciously... it had all been so easy with Amanda.

Amanda Evert... She had been Lara's dream come true: stunning; worldly; intelligent; open; courageously vivacious when Lara was shy; brazen in her open adoration, and practice of her sexuality and unbridled in her expression of it to her lovers. In Lara's world of base level expressions of love and intimacies SHE was a firebrand, her passion for her spurred Lara's self-confidence on to successfully reach her personal achievements and the fulfillment of her academic dreams. There was a time Lara loved her madly; dreamed of spending her entire life with her; happily never knowing another lover - even another man - without regret.

Then came that fateful night, when Lara had come back to the apartment in Paris to find her lovely Amanda not simply in bed with another woman... but between her outspread thighs, with an almost predatory grin on her lips.

Lara Croft had stormed out of her life; her heart-broken; her trust betrayed; her romantic dreams of true love between the two of them shattered. She had called Roth, gotten drunk, and blabbed out her plans she had made up on the train ride through the Cross Channel Tunnel to chase away her pain into the Dragon's Triangle, in search of a legend, and peace.

Now Lara lay in the arms of a beautiful flower of a woman, whose love was just awakening in her, and making Lara feel happy once more in the arms of another.

Lara and Sam's blossoming relationship, though wonderfully, painfully slow in the growing for Lara was becoming news as Sam refused to withhold affection from her in public, and often became VERY affectionate. In this day of instant fame and worldwide recognition of every little incident other people find arousing, however, it wasn't at all too long before images of the two were worldwide. Not the recognition Lara wanted as her introduction to the world of fame... (the terrors and battles of Yamatai having been covered up and the truth altered to protect the privacy of the four survivors, and the innocent families of the Solari from reprisals by the relatives of all the victims.) but as the 'likes' passed over fifty-five million on 'You Tube' and Facebook alone, well, as a representation of societies maturing to accept two women falling in love with one another? She happily took her bow.

She had all but forgotten about her former heartache over the weeks that they confessed to each other their feelings, but something nagged at her: Sam telling her Amanda found her, and the threats she had made. Amanda had to have given up. It had been almost a year, she had to have moved on... didn't she?

For the moment Lara forgot about her as Sam once more kissed her outside a coffee shop not three miles away from Sam's family estate; both oblivious to the beautiful blue eyes that stared angrily at them through binoculars from he back seat of a late-model Escalade.


	6. Invitation

**This is a violent one. I made a typo in my last chapter, that I fixed a few days ago... the make of the car was a Escalade NOT an esplenade... doh:)**

The Escalade was still there, following them, some three cars back. It was three hours, ten different locations from the coffee shop, when it had just sat there, idling, the black windows closed, and it had yet to relent. Lara recognized it, white, the model, she saw the same car in a dealership three weeks ago, and it was now right here, following them everywhere. Her instincts spiked every time she stared at the rear windows, and one name kept repeating in her head... Amanda. She had enough. She drove to an isolated stretch of beach, easily accessed by the Jeep they were driving, but not so easy for the Escalade, and drove down till they reached the narrow path to the beach, and waited till the Cadillac arrived, and positioned itself to block the road.

The two young women got out and ran behind some trees as if relieving themselves.

Sam looked at her, more than a little concerned as Lara stared at the Cadillac

"Sam," Lara said as she turned to her friend, "get in the car, lock the doors. Do NOT get out of the car. If something happens to me, get the police and trail the Escalade."

"What is it?," Sam asked nervously, but with a steel in her eyes that Lara's heart soared at the sight of, she wasn't scared, she was preparing to fight.

"I saw that car three weeks ago in a dealership while you were flirting with those surfers from Australia, you remember? The one guy looked like Gerard Butler?"

"Yeah," Sam said, her eyes glancing at the car as she feigned playful flirting with Lara to disguise the fact, "I remember, he nearly shit himself when you came up, looked like he was scared to death of you."

Lara smiled, "I know, it was a little ego deflating, l could have really gone for him... like all the way to Africa."

The two entered the Jeep, Sam behind the wheel. The Escalade lurched slightly as it was put in gear.

"Who do you think it is?," Sam asked as she brought the Jeeps powerful engine roaring to life.

"I hoped it was just my imagination... but, Amanda. It's her favorite color, and I was asking the dealer about it. She must have watched us for a while,. The driver of the Cadi is a guy, but it's hers, I don't know how I know... she wants to unnerve me. she want's me to see the car, wants me to know she watched me look at it in the dealership; maybe even know that its her that has it... that I was denied. I'm going to act as if I'm going to ask them to move, be ready to floor it." She climbed out of the Jeep.

The front passenger side of the Escalade opened and out climbed a giant of a man, a Colt forty-five tucked conspicuously in his crotch, smirking as Lara approached, and shifted a large flat object under his coat from the side of his body to his lower back, "Why don't you just call out to your little friend, and tell her to go home. Then you can get in the Cadi; so you, me and my four friends can all 'party' without her, unless you want us to bring her along"

The use of the threat to Sam was obviously from her, but this massive man had no idea about Yamatai, and had no idea who he was issuing threats to.

"Go on now," he chided, his eyes roaming over her curvaceous body, just ike the Russian, "you are gonna be a good little crotch sniffing bitch aint ya baby girl?"

Lara turned to face the Jeep, as if to call to Sam, lifted her right arm, and swung around, driving her elbow into the giant's throat.

The huge man grabbed his throat, caught completely off guard by the sudden aggression by this assumed passive girl.

Lara pulled out his colt, shot him in his right ankle, just above his foot, damaging it; but it was the weight of his massive body coming down on the breached bone that snapped it clean off his foot. The pain was so great he couldn't scream; a point made meaningless as Lara brought the butt of the pistol square into his face, knocking his front teeth out, breaking his nose, cracking his right eye socket, dislodging the eyeball - all with one hit.

She lay on the ground and turned the giant over; just as the back doors of the Escalade swung open, and a pair of grey, cobra skinned cowboy boots hit the ground.

The driver climbed out of the Escalade, pulled out a Desert Eagle Magnum as Lara pulled the giant's coat up.

The driver almost got his shot off when Lara opened fire on the Escalade. She was shooting from a prone position, with the weapon the giant had stashed... a KRISS Super V forty-five calibre sub-machine gun: one of, if not the most powerful, most accurate state of the art weapon of its kind in the world; 4,500 rounds per minute and powerful enough to shred body armor; and turn any car into scrap metal in a mater of seconds; and so, with three spare fifty round clips, and the massive body to shield her, Lara had become a death squad.

The three men in the back of the assailed SUV knew they were fucked, and as the car was shredded by the heavy calibre rounds, they crawled, terrified, through the other side door, all of them running for any cover - not fast enough.

Lara opened up on the clearly visible gas tank, pulling the massive body over her as the luxury car exploded.

One of the four men from the Cadi staggered away, his head ringing, mildly contused from the blast and grabbed a blood stained cellphone from his lapel pocket, ignorant of the fact that side of his body was now absent an arm, "Get up here!," he shouted into the phone oblivious to the fact he never hit a button, till he tripped over his own arm, "Fuck me...," he muttered through drooling lips and fainted.

The other three were in various degrees of panic, and mutilation from the blast: all three were deaf, and would die within minutes of the first.

The fourth, the driver, sprawled on the ground, his stomach breached by shrapnel, had succeeded where the first had failed; back up was arriving. He smiled weakly as a second car rolled up, a black Suburban.

Lara opened fire before the doors opened, killing everyone inside in seconds as they panicked.

The driver of the Escalade gasped and shook his head in disbelief as the bodies tumbled out of the Suburban, and Lara strode up to him. He laughed.

"Something funny?" she asked, enraged.

"No ma'am," he said as she knelt beside his gaping abdominal wound., "Just a little astonished... this was supposed to be a quick snatch and grab, blanket party. And here we are... grilled roadkill. Ha ha ha ha heee!"

"I'm not laughing," she said coldly, "Amanda...?"

"Evert...YUP!," he finished. "She wanted you roughed up."

"Not worse?" she asked in mild surprise. She had feared...

"NOPE, not raped, thank God. Hard to believe, but none of us wanted to... we all have daughters, part of her requirement for her employ... it's not a good thing. She didn't want you done in that way... something about defiling her property. However, she DID want you beaten ugly and senseless. Well, miss bitch doesn't get what she wants after all. Now, if it's not too much bother - kill me."

Lara looked at his wound, "You'll bleed out soon enough, don't ask me for mercy after what you were going to do to me. PIG."

"She was going to have the same thing done to my eight year old daughter... worse, if I didn't! You have no idea who you slept with Lara. You can't bribe us, ever, that isn't how she has us. She has our families, ALL of us. If one turns, the others HAVE to act. She's the fucking Devil. And she ain't gonna stop. The only way to do that is to become as bad as she is, and kill EVERYONE in her organization; become an asset to her plans; or scare the piss out of her. Now PLEASE, not for me, but for my innocent eight year old child who never did shit to ANYONE but got stuck with a desperate piece of shit for a father... kill me. If Amanda knows I died by your hand... she'll leave her alone."

"Where is Amanda?"

"Private club on the south shore, no private security aloud; not that she has much left on the island. I dropped her off at the Golf Course club house, some joke name, I didn't really notice. I'm not her regular driver, she was there already... late-model Bentley... white. Remember... you have to kill us all, or be an asset, or a big enough threat she stands down... now please. Do it."

Lara emptied the clip into him.

Sam drove up, "What was that? Besides a spectacular ass wupping!?"

"They invited me to a party, I had to RSVP."

COCOMO LOCO GOLF AND YACHT CLUB - CLUBHOUSE - THIRTY MINUTES LATER

She was always smoking her 'medicinal' cigeretes...ALWAYS; not that they did her, or anyone she dealt with, any good. Her other habits got worse when Lara left... the cocaine, the horse, she was up to 'chasing the dragon' eight times a week. She was a functioning addict; a princess of pain; a wondrously beautiful disaster area; and mostly... a flawless psychopath. She was Amanda Evert, and she was disappointed, and floating on three Ecstasy, washed down with Everclear. That she drew breath was incredible.

Her cell phone rang as she was caressing the barely concealed breast of her twenty-one year old female driver, a former bikini model: busty, narrow-waisted, beautiful, brown-eyed - terrified... in other words, a permanent replacement for Lara. "Yes?" she said into the phone, her hand never stopping its ministrations to her driver's body, even as people walked by.

Lara appeared in the distance, Sam beside her.

"That is disappointing Detective. I'm so glad you felt the urge to respond so quickly in finding my stolen car... give my best to your lovely wife and your two precious daughters for me. Children are such a blessing - aren't they?"

Lara walked up just as Amanda was quickening her pace on her driver, "This is familiar territory, Isn't it Lara" she said, unable to keep the rage from fueling her hand, causing the poor driver to wince as Amanda got rougher, "Me, some other woman, you waking in mid stride... awkward. Shouldn't you be stamping off?"

"Stop torturing that poor girl," Lara demanded, "You want to violate me? then Violate me your damn self... no, wait - you already did."

"Are you accusing me of something Lara?" Amanda sighed softly as she all but completely bared one of her driver's breasts and massaged it as if they were alone, "Care to help?"

"You are insane Amanda." Lara gasped as she watched her all but maul the girl.

"YOU MADE ME IT!," Amanda suddenly shrieked, and stood up, glaring at the beautiful Brit with open anger, and anguish. "I WAS CURED! I was a recovering drug addict, I WAS IN THERAPY! AND YOU...left me."

"Hear me Amanda," Lara said as she got up close to her face, She wasn't going to give the lunatic a chance to spew more madness."YOU are the cause of your own misery. I was gone a whole week, for my finals. You couldn't wait? YOU couldn't come to the library to meet me like during the first semester? YOU lost your grip on US, NOT me. I just saw the truth. I left and never looked back. So listen. I LOVED YOU. I wanted only you. That we are not together is YOUR fault, your unwillingness to be happy with just me."

Amanda almost cried as she touched Lara's crescent scar on her left breast.

"Don't," Lara gasped as she almost burst into tears, "You lost your right to this body when you left it. If I ever think you threaten my friends, or anyone I care about... you will reap the fruits of your betrayal... as those fools you sent after us did. I have to thank you Amanda. If it hadn't been for you, and the pain you put me through, and the repression of that rage... me and Sam here would be dead." Lara turned to Sam, "Kiss me... lover." It was hard to even look at Amanda, knowing what she had become; but Lara needed to bait her to keep coming after her till her old flame made that one mistake too many.

Sam hungrily obliged, and stuck her middle finger out at Amanda as she did.

"Lara," Amanda whispered weakly, "I..."

"Save it. Do yourself a favor Amanda... get off the drugs for real this time, especially the real one your addicted to, Control." she wrapped her arm about Sam's waist and left Amanda staring after them, her mind awash in rage. Just like Lara wanted. Now she was certain Amanda would make a mistake to get herself killed, hopefully by the police. She regretted having it as her only option; little did she know it wouldn't be.


	7. Dream a Little Dream of Me

They had driven for hours before accepting they were safely away from Amanda, or any cronies before Sam drove them down a hidden side road and parked the jeep in an abandoned plane hanger overlooking a small island some two hundred fifty feet in diameter, shaped like a heart, with a small cabana in the middle. It was a good three miles out to sea, and surrounded by artificial reefs.

"My dad's gift to mom," Sam sighed in mild embarrassment, "their fifteenth anniversary. It's made by moving land from the top of a hill, out to the ocean."

"And the reef?" Lara asked as she pulled the guns from the back of the jeep.

"His idea... his old home in Japan; a way of saying where she was is home - dads cheesy... just real expensively. The compounds about three miles down the beach."

"I think its romantic - if, as you said, cheesy," Lara sighed.

"Hold on," Sam said as she pulled out her cell, "I'll get a jet ski here and have them bring ammo, food, and get rid of the jeep... to be safe. Man, I never thought I'd ever say that... 'bring ammo'. God! Sweety, you're not a dull date."

Three hours later, and the two were on the island; weapons loaded, a weeks worth of provisions for ten men, fuel for the generator to run the islands heart - a four room underground bunker: bedroom, bathroom, full kitchen, generator/com center. They were safe; and so as the sun set, bleeding the blue sky crimson and black Sam stepped to Lara as the latter stared at it, "No news about the shooting... strange."

"That isn't surprising. She either had a cop in her pocket cover it up, or had another team clean it up. It may be good news for us - or much worse is coming."

"Want to talk about her?"

"Who?," Lara asked, not bothering to turn away from the sunset, "The psychopathic drug addict you met at the club house?... or the Amanda I loved?"

Sam frowned, "I just thought...," she said sadly, "I'm sorry Lara."

Lara turned to her, and touched her cheek lightly, her eyes red with withheld tears, "No Sam, I'm sorry. I have no idea what it is I feel. Maybe if I tell you about us... it might help me understand what happened to her."

"Lara," Sam said, touching her forehead lightly to Lara's bowed head, "She sent men to beat you... I hate to be the one to remind you of that but..."

Lara lifted her hands to her own face and rubbed her eyes, "I know Sam. I know she sent them. But I... I don't understand why, with all those men sent to just take me, was she alone with just her driver? why did she just sit there, unmoved when I walked up unscathed? I can't shake the feeling she controlled it... MADE it happen; planned it to end as it did. She made no effort to run, didn't look at all surprised to see us. She was expecting me to win... how?"

"Ok," Sam said, "maybe it was staged?"

"Those men are dead. They were armed with live ammunition Sam. There was no way for ANYONE to doubt they couldn't successfully do what they came to pull off; take me, do whatever they would do to me, and leave... it was Amanda who was expecting the outcome she got - me killing them all... as if someone told her I was capable of it. Even the fact the big guy had that KRISS on him when he stepped to me... as if I was being given the means to walk away - untouched. She wanted me to kill them."

"How could she know you were capable of killing? ... did something happen in Paris?"

"Nothing Sam, not one fight, not one argument... nothing to suggest I was even proficient with a gun like that, or knew how to defend myself at all. I left her almost a year before Yamatai... and no one who was there would talk."

"Ok, let's take this carefully. How about your Dad? He was in the service right?"

"S.A.S. He was a non-com... but still, that doesn't mean I can do what he did; and She never knew I was the daughter of Earl Richard Croft. I liked the anonymity I had in London: so I never told her, and she never asked. Hell, I didn't know who her father was till after I walked out."

"Who?"

"She's Kyle Everts daughter. The Wall Street Financier who bought out , and outsourced his way to a fortune in the market in the nineteen nineties. She never mentioned him, or the fact she was worth thirty billion dollars after he died... the week before I caught her in bed with the other girl. she sent me a text, 'we're rich', the night he died; and then the night before I got to the flat, all she sent me was... 'I'm so waisted!' twenty three hours later I was broken hearted, enraged, and on the Cross Channel Tunnel train to the Endurance. She texted me that, 'I didn't understand', 'come back', etc. Maybe I should have... So many would still be alive."

"And so many would still be dying," Sam said to her and took her hand as the sun set, "Come on, YOU saved the lives of innocent women, and children... never forget that, even if only the four of us know it."

But they weren't.

SIXTY MILES AWAY - THREE HOURS LATER

The greater part of Amanda hoped she was insane... hoped it would end it - to set them both free.

Her driver had administered the proper dosage of the Blowfish poison and other ingredients - as listed in the ritual.

Amanda lay in the tub, her eyes rolled back in her head, her body temperature kept at balance with the water, just above freezing. She was dead... almost.

She was floating, and she was not alone, SHE was with her as she had been the last time she had passed beyond the veil... when she had convinced herself Lara was gone; when the helicopter she sent into the Dragon's Triangle from her salvage ship crashed with her ex lover onboard with Roth.

She had been on the ship, trailing the Endurance, when it went down; her Captain refused to enter. She had gotten out her bottles and pills, and for days cried herself to sleep. Then she had a ray of hope... the distress call from Lara, answered by the Coast Guard; but then the rescue plane crashed and she once again fell into depression. It was at this point her control took over: her will to see her wishes fulfilled at all costs. She bribed, then threatened the pilots family to enter the Triangle - then IT crashed. Her misery so bleak it consumed her soul, her control, her will; she ended her life three days later... or so she'd hoped.

HER voice called out from the darkness, whispering... "Amanda? She lives."

Amanda was suddenly 'pulled' from the blackness into life once more, surrounded by bewildered medical personnel. On the television behind them, the news reported the rescue of the survivors of the Endurance.

She was convinced for weeks after that it was someone in the medical team who spoke to her, and she relented in her chase of her ex, convinced it was all for not, and she would just be better if she simply let her go. REASON had entered her life - Till HER dreams began.

In them she heard a woman, old and wise, whispering to her, promising her to see Lara again, to have her in her life, hold her again.

Amanda had fought the thoughts at first; tried to reason them away, gain control of her thoughts once more; then the dreams became relentless, unending, encroached on her waking life. She tried to fight them with HER drugs, her will... then the computer on her desk turned itself on and uploaded the video of Lara and Sam. She left for Honolulu that afternoon.

SHE had said that Lara was a samurai, told her what men to send to die at her hand, to prove what she said of her promise of reuniting them was true.

Amanda consented; and told the men what to do, down to the placement of the Colt and KRISS; and to the use of the words "crotch sniffing bitch" and "babygirl"; all intended to 'intimidate' her - or so she lied... it worked. Her sweet, genuinely kind and compassionate lover slaughtered them all. What was this? Hope? or madness? She would soon find out as she entered the last ritual the voice guided her to perform to bring them face to face.

So she arranged once more to 'die'. If it was madness, she would at last be free; if not, she would have her back. Either way, it had to end - for both their sakes.

Amanda was once more, in the ether; in the place between life and death; her madness and oblivion; her pain and nothingness; her love and loss. Content for it to be done; and yet hoping for more.

Amanda had taken enough poison to stop her heart - and SHE had caught her. Her heart was now beating once more, at so slow a rhythm it was barely noticable, restarted by her 'special' friend on the other side of the veil, the one who would shock it to life when they were done with this wonderous visit... with Lara.

"So," the voice finally sighed, "Are you ready to see her once more? Can you bear to see it? them as one - If they are so?"

"Yes," Amanda whispered sadly, "Take me to her... please."

"So be it," the two women rode the wind as if part of it, through the clouds, into the star filled sky, and then down to the earth, to the big island once more, seeing the lights of cruise ships, aircraft carriers on maneuvers, pleasure ships, and the odd schools of dolphins as they were almost pulled to a small, private island off the coast of Hawaii. Amanda felt the sand under her feet as the two touched down, and approached a small wooden, furnished cabana there. They passed through the open door, and found, laying side by side a bed Lara and Samantha, sound asleep.

Amanda drew near, her entire being vibrated with an all-encompassing joy.

Her companion, moved to the sleeping Sam.

Amanda knelt beside Lara and caressed her face, "I can feel her.," she whispered in joyful astonishment as Lara smiled in her sleep and rubbed her face against the caressing hand.

"Well, go on, indulge your desires, she'll never know it was you, or be certain it ever happened - a dream." The figure caressed Sam's face, and gently turned it to face her, "Hello geisha. You know Amanda, I can fully understand the attraction. I could easily find myself quite happily waking to THIS face every morning for the rest of her life."

Amanda simply stared at Lara's sleeping face as she lay all but naked before her.

The figure turned, and gazed at her companion in bewilderment. "Foolish girl. Here she is... Your precious possession, your object of 'love', ha. She is at your mercy; her beautiful flesh before you... and all you can do in the precious few moments I can grant you before you may very truly die to this earthly plane... is stare at her sleeping face, with naked adoration. So I ask you why, when she handed you her pure woman's heart - did you break it?"

Amanda scowled at the insinuation that she would dare violate her; her obsession aside, where it stemmed from was once pure, and it was THAT she felt, and as for her question, what answer do fools give? "I want her as she was; in love with me again, of her own free will. I want another chance to do it right. Not molest her in her sleep."

The figure smiled, "Then all you need to do is shout out 'wait' before she left that night. Instead of what you were doing. I digress Amanda, forgive me please. But you understand... you must start over with 'this' Lara, and she hates you...or does she? stroke her body with what it is you feel for her, and find out."

"But..." Amanda began weakly.

"Will you leave this existence so unfulfilled? Give her body pleasure... if you loved her."

So from that soft, terrible ache within her soul, Amanda Evert ever so gently caressed with ethereal fingers her lover till Lara sighed in her sleep, and bared her wound that bled from the windows to her woman's soul in soft tears.

"Amanda... , why did you leave me? What did I do?"

Amanda shook, her hands reached out to her companion, pleading, "Let me die... I can't do this to her anymore."

The figure smiled, "And I cannot answer her. You owe her it. I can work with this... you may yet have her back. But only with Sam's help, and only if I can properly 'influence' her - what say you?"

Amanda just stared at Lara sadly.

"I understand. Your mind has not been your own. You have been under the influence of drugs, and drink, and fear, and hate. I know how those can play with a woman's heart, her reason. Do you think she doesn't? I have a way to get her back in your arms... forever."

"But," Amanda was lost once more as Lara turned in her sleep, her hand falling over Sam's waist. "What is it," she sighed.

"You must get these foolish chemicals out of your system. I will help you to help her find her precious 'Answers'."

"Where?"

"Off the coast of a forbidding place is another island from where I came. It holds many secrets and perils both natural and unnatural. There are objects and places that can bring me back to this plane, and into the body of young Sam, not to push her out, but to join with her... in a way of speaking. I am stronger than Sam and will use her to break Lara's heart irreversibly, and you will be there - her true love. What say you?"

Amanda felt a rhythmic vibration overwhelming her essence.

"Hurry girl," the figure sighed, "Time to go... what say you?"

Lara sighed in her sleep, her full lips parting.

"Yes," Amanda gasped, and vanished into air.

The figure stood and smiled, her form becoming more solid, more clear: her hair became long, like black silk, all the way to her hips, her garment became an elaborate crimson and purple silk robe over a gold silk dress; her head adorned with a crown representing a dragon eating its own tail, above its head the rising sun disk parting two clouds. The face became as bone, its structure last seen laying in a tomb on Yamatai, then flesh like alabaster covered it, firmly forming the serene face of a beautiful, regal, Japanese woman of some thirty years - Himiko. She sat on the bed beside Lara, and stroked her face, "My dear girl... when you destroy a cell - you set it's prisoner free."


	8. Nightcapped

It happened in silence, as if in a dream; and as if her friend was being prompted to action by some will outside herself, the intent of which was unknown, but Sam seemed enthralled pleasantly to obey (as if drugged). Still, it was the moment she had been eagerly awaiting; and judging by the giddy look in her beautiful friends eyes, Sam was too.

Lara felt the soft tickle of Sam's left hand exploring her naked abdomen once more, joined by her warm, soft lips at her neck, then her earlobe. They had danced a bit along the border between lovers and friends for a few weeks, and Sam's soft sighs and moans slid into the inner recesses of her mind and brought her to a state of awareness of her fingers that made her whole body tingle in ways Amanda never did. The anticipation of where they would travel next, and when, was both killing her, and bringing her to such a blissful state of arousal she almost never wanted it to be fulfilled: she was a kid on Christmas eve of a Christmas day that 'almost' kept arriving; the sweetest of tortures. "Sam?" she asked as her friend's free hand started to work its way through her hair, "I...,"

"Shhhh...," Sam sighed and kissed her full lips, the strong taste of strawberry sweetened champagne filled her mouth as Sam's warm, soft, eager, wet tongue massaged her own, "I have a great idea," she moaned, "but first,"she pulled Lara's top off and began to explore her upper body in its entirety. "I'm gonna do some exploring of the hills...nope, the mam-mountains and valleys of your Croftastic Larascape. Might even do some spelunking, you know caving - get it?"

"So romantic," Lara giggled.

Sam smiled and kissed Lara's neck, letting the tip of her tongue trail down to the center of her collarbone, then looked up at Lara's dilated brown eyes, and smiled and sighed as she palmed Lara's naked breasts gently.

Lara gasped as Sam stroked her erect nipples with the tip of her tongue, then gently sucked each in turn as she massaged her breasts.

Sam sighed sweetly and relented her friend's bosom for her abdomen, and dipped her lips into the valley of Lara's flat belly.

Lara closed her eyes gently, reveling in her sense of touch as Sam's soft hands and lips made their way down her naked abdomen.

Sam tasted Lara's skin with an expression of absolute intoxication as her fingers reached the hip straps of the entranced Brits panties and slowly peeled them from her hips.

Lara closed her eyes and bit into her bottom lip as she felt the lace of her panties being pulled so painfully slowly from her hips, down her long legs, and tossed aside to vanish, forgotten, into the dark recesses of the cabana.

Sam knelt between Lara's thighs and worked her fingertips from Lara's knees to her hips, then tickled her between her thighs till Lara began to sweat.

Lara moaned softly, her hands gripping the sheets, both a little scared by her friends seeming 'power' over her, and her own need to let herself be subject to it. Sam may have been drunk, but she certainly was aware of what she was doing.

Sam sighed as she stroked her fingertips along the crease of Lara's naked sex with a skill and gentility that made Lara almost weep with want. She smiled at the Brit's face and added more caressing fingers, and her thumbs to her gentle exploration. Sam grinned pleasantly as all too soon she had Lara's hips grinding against her hands, and the young aristocrat gasping for air; her body writhing in rapturous pleasure, her hair a brown sea on which her blissful head rolled.

Lara's skin was flushed, her eyes almost tearing as she tried to speak; her mind so awash in endorphins; her body peaked to the point of pain in anticipation now being granted release. "Sam," she sighed after several seconds, "I... never... meant for this to - thank you."

Sam smiled, "I never want you to cry over that demented bitch again - I heard you crying her name a few hours ago... woke me up," her speech was slurred, "so I got out my dad's stash, pink champagne, and decided to celebrate... the first orgasm I've ever given you," and slid her delicate fingers slowly inside her and began to gently coax sweet sighs, and moans from her best friend's lips and the softest tears of gratitude from her beautiful eyes as the Brit finally let herself be given this gift from Sam without self-recrimination of having 'made' her do it, or somehow 'taken advantage of her'. Sam was doing it out of selfless love for her.

"Sam," Lara whispered through her tears after several minutes of these soft, intimate pleasures she had almost forgotten she could ever feel again. The fact they came from her best friend, from a place of love meant more than the experiences themselves. Her body gripped the invading fingers in it's velveteen embrace as they elicited gentle ripples from its depths; building slowly till they flooded Lara with arousal, and had her gasping as sure as if she were drowning in a sea of ecstasy, culminated in an all cleansing wave of release that breached the dam of her repressed emotions and swept her away to a place of peace.

Sam smiled sweetly as Lara sat up, clutched her to her, and wept into her shoulder.

"Can I return the favor?" Lara asked breathlessly after several moments of the two just embracing.

Sam smiled, and kissed Lara once more, "Knock yourself out... Tomb Raider."

The hours passed between the two lovers and the time was blissful as they explored the recesses of deepest pleasure and passion the other left hidden in the most intimate parts of their bodies and their hearts; till as the sun rose, the two greeted the reborn day in the bliss of afterglow.

"So," Lara sighed, after she regained herself "This great idea?"

"Came to me last night," Sam sighed, "I couldn't stop thinking of Himiko."

Lara touched Sam's face gently.

"I'm fine sweety; after all, my girlfriend can kick her ass... anyway I remembered a part of the story my grandmother told me, about where Himiko came from. NOT Yamatai, she traveled there from this other island... carried there on divine wind. The people noticed her divinity and instantly fell to their knees in worship of her. This place was known as a type of hell, and only by legend..."

"Wait - someone found it?"

Sam smiled, "I went on the web before I had at you, there's a web site devoted to this stuff. Guy who puts it out was an RAF pilot named West - cute - he says it's real. He says there was a report filed on it's location by the only one man who has ever lived to see it first hand, and he barely escaped alive... SAS Squadron Sgt. Major Richard Croft - your dad."


	9. Hell's Angel

**This is another violent one**

The morning sun beckoned them from their lover's revelry and well-earned blissful sleep in one another's arms. Lara was feeling empowered by the revelation of her father's past brush with the myth she had faced as well. She felt she could possibly find more answers on that rock; maybe it was where he first learned to believe in his legends... maybe. They ventured off the island on the third day, made a beeline for the jeep and drove till they couldn't see a single other car.

"So," Sam enquired..." What's the plan?"

"First I have to call my uncle, my mother's brother, he's been holding everything for me, overseeing the estate, the grounds, all legal documents, etc. HE has pull. I have a hereditary title, NO contacts but him. If I have any hope of finding that file... I need to placate him, and he's going to want one thing - me taking the reigns. Me accepting my heritage, my parents deaths... going home, and take my place as Countess or Lady Croft... right." She smirked and glanced absent-mindedly into the rearview mirror. She frowned, "We have company."

"What?" Sam asked and made to turn.

"DON'T." Lara pulled over to the curb and waited. Five minutes passed before a motorcycle rolled into view, the rider, dressed in blue jeans and a Mexican poncho, the tell-tale bulge of an automatic pistol just off of center on his belt, staring at them - waiting.

Lara floored it and pulled out and accelerated.

The bike followed.

"Laugh," Lara said bluntly, "Loudly, make it seem I just showed you something hysterical."

Sam roared joyously, waved her arms and kept it up till Lara turned and grinned.

"Kiss me, let him see."

"Yes sir," Sam sighed and happily obeyed.

Lara glanced back in the rearview at the rider.

His face was stoic, not so much as a smile, or frown.

"What is it?" Sam asked, still keeping up the grinning act.

"Trouble," Lara said bluntly, and eyed a sign for a rest stop up ahead. "We need to take a stop."

"We do?" Sam said, glancing at the biker briefly.

"We're going into the loo. YOU are going to get out of it as soon as he enters after us."

"Who is he? One of hers?"

"I have a gut feeling he's not her rank and file. He's alone. He isn't backing off, he isn't trying to stay hidden. He isn't here to observe, and he isn't taking either of us anywhere. Stay strong, and no matter what you hear... do not go back in the loo."

Sam shrank back in her seat, "Lara? What are you going to do?"

Lara fixed her gaze on the rest stop bathroom - vacant. "Relieve myself." She pulled the jeep up front of the restrooms and the two entered, hand in hand.

The biker pulled over across the street from the rest stop and climbed off his bike. Pulling off his sunglasses, he eyed the surrounding landscape and pulled out a cell phone from his back pocket. "Get a lock on this phone... I'll need verification of contract fulfilled in fifteen minutes. I'll need clean up crew as well... bring acid, floor drains will suffice to remove evidence, and remains." He put the phone back in his pocket and strode across the barren street... straight into a nightmare.

The place was set up in a Polynesian style motif, and yet still had the generic standard facilities as regulated by the U.S. board of health for all such facilities: four toilet stalls across one side and an equal number of individual sinks across from them. The water pipes were over the toilet stalls, situated just center of the stalls due to design constraints, but were reinforced to the point they could hold well over five hundred pounds, and could keep the water inside. The sinks were also reinforced to prevent the cold water pipes from getting too hot. Very modern, very pretty, and very isolated.

He entered and quietly walked over to the last stall, the only one that was closed; looked under the door and saw Lara's boots. He pulled out his Walther PPK Short, looked at it as he screwed on its silencer, and loaded the chamber with its ominous click. Then all hell broke loose.

She jumped up the moment she heard him begin to screw on the silencer, hung from the overhead pipe, her feet planted firmly against the door, her body coiled. The moment he loaded the chamber she pushed off with her feet, pulled her knees into her chest, then drove them into the door full force, using her momentum to bring it slamming into his gun hand, deflecting the barrels trajectory, and taking his right ear off as he reflexively pulled the trigger.

He reared back from the pain, his free hand covering his bleeding wound as he attempted to regain his focus from the sudden attack. It was already too late.

She flew through the broken stall, her right shoulder driving up from a sprinters starting crouch into his abdomen, just under his ribs, into his diaphragm, knocking the wind out of him, and sending him flying back, his lower back impacting the sink basin: bruising his spine, rupturing a kidney.

He screamed in pain, his trigger finger squeezing the gun till it hurt.

Lara grabbed the raised gun hand as it waved wildly above his head and, bringing all her weight into the drop, pulled it down across the adjacent sink as she simply dropped to her knees... SNAP!

He never made a sound as his mouth dropped open in binding agony, then stared at his hand, and the bone protruding from his arm just below his wrist.

She brought her right elbow up hard, like a piston, into his jaw, not once, but five times - till it dislocated; then one between his eyes, and he all but blacked out, and neared unconsciousness.

He was broken, his arms hung uselessly as he watched her pick up his gun and held it so he could read the name on the barrel - Betsy. He smiled, closed his eyes, and awaited silent death. Moments later he did hear something; he heard a familiar little click, not the breach being opened or gun loaded, and opened his eyes. She was staring at him, her beautiful brown eyes alive with an almost giddy malice, then he stared at the gun... in terror - she'd switched on the safety.

"You never should have taken a contract on two innocent women," she whispered, "now me and Betsy are going to make it hurt - badly."

Ten minutes later she hefted him to his bloody feet, what little was left of his hands and ribs ached enough to keep him awake He stared, bleary eyed as she swung him by his broken hand around until he fell forward after a few staggered steps into the second open stall.

Lara held his arms at his sides from behind, and drove his head forward and down as he fell, killing him.

His body twitched wildly as his cell phone suddenly sprang to life. Lara pulled it out, using toilet paper... no need to ask who it was, "Amanda Evert's man-bitch answering service?"

"How'd you kill this one lover? I bet you used his own gun on him, just like the last ten. Mmm?"

"Kill? No... he's just on the loo."

"Wow, THAT was cold... and funny, well-played - 'Lady Croft'."

Lara took a deep breath, and composed herself, "When did you find out?"

"HOW COULDN'T I!? It was all over the media and internet when the Endurance went down... HELL I was following your ship in a salvage vessel and we all heard it, 'Earl Richard Croft's daughter - Missing! Family Curse?' Etc, etc, etc, etnauseum. I was devastated by the thought of it..."

"You were following us!?"

"Really? Your surprised? Look, I admit, most of the reason was to talk, the rest... money. I knew if anyone could find anything of importance... it was you. So, I had my people put together a team, and a ship, and went to join in your little expedition - to help if needed for a percentage, and part of the glory, truth be told. It was MY helicopter that tried to get you and Roth out of there."

Lara was stunned, "And you couldn't have told me this once I was off the island because...?"

"I'd given up lover," Amanda sighed, almost relieved to confess this, "I o.d.'d."

"Amanda I'm not worth..." Lara gasped, how could she be the cause of so much death?

"Say's you," Amanda whispered.

"Amanda, please, stop this. I'm not the same girl I was in Paris. If you love me... why send these men?"

"To keep you on your toes lover, keep you primed, ready for the rough stuff you excel at. There is no substitute for real world experience. How are you going to hone your survival instincts unless your under a true threat?"

"Amanda... please. No one else needs to die because of us."

"Oh but they do lover. Now hurry home little Lady Croft before the big bad bitch sends another pop quiz your way. Chow."

Lara scowled and closed the phone, flushing it down the toilet.

Just then, five armed men in chemical protective garb came through the door, all carrying bottles of sulfuric acid.

Lara looked at them in happy astonishment, switching Betsy's safety off with her concealed hand, "THANK GOD! There is an enormous pile of shite clogging the stall."

They reached for their guns.

She spun and shot them each right in the head before they even saw her gun.

Sam was waiting in the jeep, "Sounded messy."

"The spicy nacho dip you made last night was just murder; I told you I wanted to make bangers and mash, but noooo. Thank god they had antacids... it'll all go down easy from here on." She stared at the motorcycle, "A Harley Davidson Softail Breakout FXSB, crime to just leave it here to draw attention... Call for them to get the jeep."

Half an hour later the two were on the bike.

Sam wrapped her arms around Lara's waist, "Yeah, two hot girls on this bad boy is FAR less attention grabbing."

"Complaining?"

"Nope, gun it - Lady Croft."

"Oh very funny, geisha."

"Geiging."

Lara smirked as she brought the powerful engine to life and the two drove off, headed toward the city lights of Honolulu.


End file.
